a special election edition of "this week." [ Crowd chanting "four more years" ] it is here. After two years -- I'm mitt romney and I'm running for president of the united states. We're not going back. We are moving this country forward. More than $2 billion. This man has courage in his soul and a spine of steel. What is missing is what is missing is leadership in the white house. Just two days to go in this historic campaign. In these final hours, is obama closing with a kick? Do romney's last-minute moves signal confidence or desperation? How has hurricane sandy changed the race? And will we know the winner tuesday night? We'll ask our headliners. Obama's top white house strategist david plouffe. And romney's senior adviser ed gillespie. And our powerhouse roundtable. George will, cokie roberts, donna brazile, matthew dowd and ronald brownstein of the national journal. Hello again. This is it. Just hours to go before the final votes and for so many americans, up 40% of voters, election day has already come and gone. A new record that has already led to long lines like these at polling places across the country. Some good news in the early vote. That makes sense. The race has been tight from the start. Today, it could not be closer. Our brand-new abc news/washington post poll shows an absolute dead-heat. 48%. Still, in those battleground states, a small but steady lead for president obama and it's in the battlegrounds especially those midwestern states of iowa, wisconsin and ohio, where the candidates are making their closing arguments. The american auto industry is back on top. Osama bin laden is dead. We have made real progress. But, we are here today because we know we got more work to do. The question in this election is this, do you want to stay on the course that we are on or do you want real change? Because we represent real change. With that, let's hear from the campaign's top strategists. David plouffe and ed gillespie. David, let me begin with you. I know that you have been steadily confident throughout this campaign. But you saw our abc news/washington post poll still absolutely deadlocked. 48-48. How can you remain so confident? Well, george, we have always known that this was going to be a very close race. But it is going to be decided in the battle ground states. We have an important lin those states. Early voting has gone very well for us. We think we're closing with strong momentum. The president is having terrific events out there. I'm confident that the president will be re-elected. We have the support to win this election. We have to make sure that it materializes in votes. And that's the challenge over the next two days is to make sure we're getting all of the supporters to the polls. So much of the past few days defined by hurricane sandy. The president receiving praise from sandy. Some pretty harsh criticism from the former mayor of new york, rudy giuliani. I don't know what he was doing in the nevada. If I was president of the united states, I wouldn't be flitting around the west and midwest. I feel pretty offended seeing my president floating around, campaigning while people are suffering. Your response? Well, mayor giuliani is running around the country campaigning for mitt romney and popping off. The people in new york and new jersey, they're working with this president and this administration, fema, every day, and our focus needs to be. Really, the country has been united. Mayor giuliani may be the exception to this. Focus on recovery. Making sure we stand by those who lost so much and need to recover. This will take a long time. The federal government's doing all they can to partner with state and local officials. We flew power equipment from california to help restore power, getting fuel into the area, and direct assistance to help with food and lodging. This is going to take a while. We're doing everything we can that we stand by the people in the eastern seaboard. Your predecessor karl rove, top strategist for george w. Bush, has said that hurricane sandy the last week, has hd give the president a real boost politically? Listen, we're not worried about the politics. We're worried about doing the right thing by those acted by the race. We think this has been a stable race. I think karl rove might have said that, because a few days ago he predicted a big romney win. Listen, we're confident that the president has the electoral votes to win this, if we get our vote out. And that's what we're focused on. You remain so confident. You talked about the firewall. Ohio, iowa and wisconsin. But we're seeing mitt romney going to pennsylvania today. I know you and a lot of democrats think that's a desperation move. But some of the polls are tightening right there. And it is a state that you haven't invested a lot of resources, are you worried at all? George, we have a great organization in pennsylvania. Much better than mitt romney. We have been working it for two years. A great organization, great volunteers. This is a desperate ploy at the end of the campaign. For romney to win, he'll have to win two-thirds of the independents. The truth is, they're throwing some ads up and governor romney is traveling into states that he's not going to win. But what really matters in terms of the electoral college, we're the ones playing offense. Few weeks ago, governor romney's campaign was saying we're going to win florida and virginia. On monday, the day before the election, governor romney is going to florida and virginia, why, because he's at great risk to lose those states. We're playing offense on states they thought they had the inside track on and they don't. I think a lot of this is a smoke screen to try and mask the fact in the places that will play a factor, it's going to be close. But they're definitely in a weak position heading into election day. So, is there anything that worries you in these final 48 hours? Sure, george. Listen, four years ago, when this time two days out, everybody felt we were sailing to victory. We were very concerned. Because support levels don't mean anything if they don't materialize into votes. The president and first lady, former president clinton is going to be with us in new hampshire. But this really comes down to our amazing volunteers. Our staff out in the field who have to make sure the people who support the president exercise their right to vote. That's our biggest task right now from a political standpoint is, to make sure we get our vote out. Finally, even the president wins, his margins will be smaller than last time around. That doesn't that mean less of a mandate. And won't that make it harder for the president to succeed in the second term? As soon as the election is over, we got to move on to the pressing business. We got some fiscal and tax issues in front of us. We'll got a lot of potential to do some great things on education. So, no, I think that -- you know, we need to try and have compromise and balance. If those two things are presence, we'll be able to solve our long term deficit challenge. Create jobs in the short term and that the's question build on the progress that we have seen? Are we going to take a risk in going back to on the policies? David plouffe, thanks very much. Thanks, george.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

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